~ Award Winning Dungeon Design

GM’s Day and the GM’s Day Sale

Eight years ago I was in the middle of my then-annual GM’s day game and party* when we got word that we had lost Gary Gygax to what was thought to be another stroke.

We continued to drink, but the gaming died out a bit, and the mood shifted. We vowed to continue to celebrate GM’s Day, but that it would forever be tempered with the loss of one of the original DMs that day.

I was lucky enough to have played in a game with Mr Gygax at Gen Con many years ago (I still brag that my character was eaten by a Gelatinous Cube on level 1).

I don’t actually do a GMs day party and game anymore, but I think back on that afternoon every March 4th. Gary’s death also makes me feel oddly ambivalent about the whole commercial aspect of GMs Day – I used to look forward to the sales and celebration of DMing and DMs. But it too has been tempered by the linkage between GMs Day and the loss of Gary Gygax.

That’s why I didn’t announce that my PDFs are all on sale at RPGnow for their annual GM’s day sale – but they are. And they will continue to be on sale there until March 17th.

*It seems a lot of gamers are unaware that GM’s Day predates the death of Mr Gygax by six years. It was originally proposed by an ENWorld user by the handle of Spunkrat in 2002 and was championed by Mark Clover – the owner of Creative Mountain Games and a really cool dude. He kept it visible and got the first GM’s Day sales going long before we lost Gary and the current linkage between Gary’s death and the day.

Personally, I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Gary’s life and the game he created than by picking up some extra materials and running an extra session or two for players — he would have very much wanted everyone to do that, I think; probably more than he wants a statue or anything… And in my personal financial situation, were it not for GM Day sales, I wouldn’t be able to experience nearly as many of the wonderful creations that folks like you provide for our entertainment. So thank you for participating, and thanks to all of the other creators who participate as well. You all have given me hundreds of hours of enjoyment, and my players hundreds of hours of perplexity, excitement, achievement, interaction, advancement…well, you get the point! 😉